International shipping requires compliance with extensive, country-specific requirements. Countries may regulate such specifics as: packaging, marking, addressing and a multitude of other factors associated with shipping across jurisdictional borders. Each country has its own, individual set of requirements which may or may not be the same or similar to those of other countries. Failure to comply with shipping requirements may expose a shipper, for example an international company, to extensive fines and/or a moratorium on that company's ability to ship into or out of a particular country. In some instances, failure to comply with shipping requirements may even expose a company to criminal charges.
Various methods and systems are known for facilitating transactions involving the movement of products. U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,508 to Bain et al. Shows a label generating and data tracking system for processing purchase orders. Published international application WO 99/34272 (A2) by Pool et al. Shows a universal shopping center that facilitates international transactions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,369 to Nicholls et al. shows a logistics system for automating transportation of goods, while published international application WO 00/42553 (A2) by Harmony Software, Inc. shows a system for processing business information from multiple enterprises.
However, prior to the advent of the present invention, no good method or system was known to applicant for coordinating, distributing and updating the compliance requirements associated with the international shipment of products. In applicant's experience, systems for facilitating compliance with requirements for the international shipment of products suffer from significant drawbacks. In particular, they tend to involve the use of lengthy, often outdated or obsolete, uncontrolled collections of documents and guidelines. Applicant's experience has been that such deficient systems make compliance with international shipping requirements difficult at best and may place organizations, particularly large organizations, at risk for penalties for failure to comply.
It would thus be desirable to provide improved methods and systems for facilitating compliance with international shipping requirements. Such improved methods and systems would be of significant value in assisting organizations, large and small, that ship products across international borders.